The Bit Beacon Weekly Transmission 1.22.12 - 1.28.12

Much has happened over the course of this week. Including the Nintendo Network being confirmed, a new Mario title being announced, new trailers and screenshots, and a limited edition PSVita bundle all became public knowledge. Here we will give you the breakdown of this week's highlights so that you don't have to go surfing the web. Just like last week's transmission, the 'Source' links below each entry will take you to the full articles.

Sonic Generations (3DS) - PAX Prime 2011 Demo Impressions

It was recently announced that Sonic’s 20^th birthday celebration, Sonic Generations, would be headed to the Nintendo 3DS. At PAX Prime 2011 I had a chance to go hands on with the game in its first playable debut in North America. The demo was probably my best experience with the Sonic franchise in over ten years.

Shinobi (3DS) - E3 2011 Demo Impressions

I’ll admit I have never played any of the original Shinobi games, so I went into this demo knowing nothing but that Ninjas are involved. This one was announced just a short while back, and I was surprised to see it playable at the Sega booth at E3 this year. You have a few abilities to quickly learn. A grappling hook is used for climbing up to roofs and high ceilings. The basic sword attack which can be chained into combos up to 3 times. The right shoulder button will trigger your counter/deflect ability which has to be timed very accurately. You can also rapidly throw shuriken.

The way some of the abilities were mapped onto the 3DS buttons came off as awkward. However, the Sega rep assured me that in the final game the player will be able to fully customize the controls of the game. Still it made for an awkward demo session, for me at least. The first stage was a standard side scrolling level. I had to grapple onto and underneath buildings to climb on top of them to avoid fires and other objects blocking my path. And fight off the occasional ninja grunts and a few more powerful enemies.